In the wake of Hurricane Maria and its devastating impact on Puerto Rico, Owings Mills’ Har Sinai Congregation recently raised $5,000 to benefit Temple Beth Shalom in the Caribbean island’s capital of San Juan.
Kenneth R. Bell, who serves as second vice president of Har Sinai, the nation’s oldest continuously Reform congregation, is one of the leaders of the philanthropic campaign.
“I was extremely pleased by the generosity of our membership,” said Bell, an engineer who lives in Pikesville. “We got donations ranging from $250 to $10. People gave what they could, and everybody felt it was a good cause.”
Bell said Ted Oshrine, a member of the Har Sinai’s brotherhood, first suggested that the 175-year-old temple help people affected by all of the hurricanes that took place last fall in the southern region of the United States. Bell said the matter was initially discussed at a Har Sinai board meeting.
Then, he said, the ball really got rolling when Rabbi Floyd L. Herman, Har Sinai’s rabbi emeritus, urged his Facebook friends to send funds to Temple Beth Shalom. (Rabbi Herman twice served as a visiting rabbi at Temple Beth Shalom.)
Bell said Rabbi Herman’s idea proved to be a catalyst for Har Sinai, and he and Oshrine headed the fund-raising efforts. “We decided to do a fund-raiser of Har Sinai members to raise money to give to their Beth Shalom Hurricane [Recovery] Fund,” Bell said.
As Har Sinai’s fund-raising work was just starting on this project, Bell happened to meet a man named Steven Spivak at a dinner meeting in College Park in early November. Bell discovered that Spivak lived in Puerto Rico with his wife for part of the year and is a Temple Beth Shalom congregant. “it was just a blessed coincidence,” said Spivak, who has belonged to the temple for six years and lives part of the year in Bayamon, north of San Juan.
Har Sinai invited Spivak to speak at a brotherhood breakfast on Dec. 17. Spivak’s talk about the need to help Puerto Rican hurricane victims deeply resonated with breakfast attendees, according to Bell. (Spivak also surprised and delighted congregants with the donation of a Viennese High Holidays machzor from the late 1930s as a gift of appreciation.)
“He talked about the hurricane, in general, and the history of the temple,” Bell recalled. “He certainly got a warm welcome at the breakfast. He also did a presentation that I also think surprised a lot of our members, on the Holocaust memorial in Puerto Rico.”
To encourage donations from the membership, Har Sinai’s brotherhood agreed to – dollar for dollar — match the first $2,000 of contributions. After six weeks, Bell said the temple recently presented Spivak with a check for $5,000, all of which went to Temple Beth Shalom, a Reform congregation.
Approximately 1,500 Jews live in Puerto Rico, which is a U.S. territory. The island has three synagogues, a Jewish community center, a Hebrew school, a Zionist youth group and a kosher grocery. Most Puerto Rican Jews live in San Juan, and the island’s Jewish history dates back to the 15th century.
The 50-year-old Temple Beth Shalom – which suffered damage from flooding, and continues to have intermittent electrical and water service – recently stated on its website (tbspr.org) that it is working toward raising $100,000 in hurricane relief. The synagogue still lacks telephone service.
According to its website, Beth Shalom, as of Jan. 1, still needs a lot of help since “many members of our congregation are in need of many items, including food and water. … The situation is critical.”
Said Spivak: “The synagogue and almost everyone in San Juan who lived through this … suffered enormous water damage. The synagogue lost everything that was in refrigeration, storage, and there was water damage. … The challenge for the temple is to try to provide for the future for a more stable electrical supply, be that a major generator or eventually active solar panels. … Donations like this, in my humble opinion, would go toward how the synagogue prepares for the future with a more stable electrical system so this does not ever happen again.”
To help the temple, donations can be made to tbspr.org/hurricane-maria-relief. Boxes of non-perishable food items, diapers, feminine hygiene products and other essential items can be sent to Temple Beth Shalom, c/o Salatiel Cruz, P.O. Box 363752 San Juan, Puerto Rico 00936.
Jeff Seidel is a Baltimore-based freelance writer.
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